Running Gurobi Instant Cloud from Azure Functions

Answered

Mats Kiil Gunleiksrud

• May 18, 2021 11:45

Hello, I am looking into the possibility of running Gurobi Instant Cloud from an Azure Functions machine. Would it be possible to call Gurobi Instant Cloud from a python program in Azure Functions given that Azure Functions cannot have the normal Gurobi client installed? I know that there are ways to create Gurobi cloud environments using the python API, but I wasn't quite able to figure out whether this requires the local Gurobi client which gurobipy normally interfaces with when running on a local machine. Thanks in advance!

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• Azure

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  Matthias Miltenberger

  Gurobi Staff

  • May 18, 2021 12:02

  Hi Mats,

  You do need the full gurobipy module even when the optimization is actually performed in the Gurobi Instant Cloud. The model is still constructed locally and only the computational heavy-lifting is performed on the remote machine. There is also no "slim variant" of the gurobipy module.

  I hope that answers your question.

  Cheers,
  Matthias

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  Mats Kiil Gunleiksrud

  • May 18, 2021 13:20
  • Edited

  

  

  

  Hello, thanks for your reply. Does that mean, in essence, that Gurobi cannot be used by Azure Functions or have I missed something?

  Edit: Using python 3.7, pip can install Gurobipy just fine and it runs even after I have uninstalled my local Gurobi installation, so assume it will work in Azure Functions as well since it will be included in the virtual environment.

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  Matthias Miltenberger

  Gurobi Staff

  • May 18, 2021 13:25

  Great! I am not fully aware of all limitations/features of Azure Functions - but if you can install the gurobipy module, you should be good to go.

  Cheers,
  Matthias

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  Mats Kiil Gunleiksrud

  • May 18, 2021 13:36

  

  

  

  Thank you, I was initially under the impression that Gurobipy relied on a local installation of Gurobi, not that it was self-contained. It seems to work fine now, so thank you for your help.

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  Matthias Miltenberger

  Gurobi Staff

  • May 18, 2021 13:39

  That's correct, gurobipy does not require a full Gurobi installation. The main components, like the libgurobi that contains most of the solver's features is included in both installation methods.

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